More than 80 cases of Covid-19 have now been linked to an outbreak at a care home in the north-east.
A total of 84 people at Inchmarlo House care home in Banchory have tested positive for the disease, and several people have passed away.
Extra staff from NHS Grampian and Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AHSCP) have been placed in the home in a bid to bring the outbreak under control.
A spokeswoman for the incident management team (IMT) set up to investigate it said: “There are now 84 detected cases of COVID-19 associated with Inchmarlo House Care Home.
“The Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian continue to Inchmarlo and are deploying staff into the home to help in supporting the management and staff team to continue to care for residents.
“The home is still closed to new admissions and visiting and staff.”
A spokeswoman for Inchmarlo House said: “We are not able to comment on reports of deaths at this time, due to the need for privacy of all residents and out of respect for all families, with whom we are in frequent communication.
“Everyone at Inchmarlo is wholly focused on the care of residents and is giving 100% of their time to this just now.”